With another successful year in the books for The Experience Design Studio, we wanted to reflect on our journey in celebrating five years in business. Since taking the leap in 2017 to start an independent, customer experience-focused digital agency, what seemed scary at first has proven to be one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. On our five-year anniversary, we have a lot to be thankful for and a lot to be proud of as we begin 2023.
From a two-person startup in 2017, we’ve now grown to over 30 full-time employees located across the U.S. We bolstered our offerings and expanded our strategy, account management, and paid media teams to more holistically serve our clients' needs.
We continue to work with organizations that are aiming to make a difference. Our healthcare client roster has continued to grow and expand, while we've branched out into non-profits and the education space.
We continue to bring in team members who enhance our culture. For the second year in a row, we won an award for being a great place to work. Our remote work culture, considered experimental when we started back in 2017, is now the industry norm that large agencies are trying to replicate. Our employee base has thrived on the ability to work from the comfort of their own home, on the road, or wherever their travels take them. We have team members spread across the country – from Boston to Seattle, Michigan to the Atlanta, Philly, California – bringing together different cultures and experiences into one group. We had a team member work from Colombia for three months, while another spends time periodically working in Kenya, proving you can be a successful agency and empower your employees to live their lives anywhere.
We’ve cemented ourselves as a household name in launching and supporting digital experiences in the biotech and medical device space. At the same time, we also expanded a bit into other areas like education and the non-profit sector, supporting companies like ORIGO Education, Learning Ally, and The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.
We are extremely excited for 2023 and what the year will bring. With new and organic client growth, we have a variety of projects and initiatives in the pipeline that will continue to add to our resume and roster while expanding our offering.
“Despite the market turbulence, we’ve been able to stay the course and sail smoothly throughout the year. We can’t wait to see what 2023 will bring.” – Shai Reichert
2022 Highlights
- Team XDS saw unprecedented organic growth, adding 18 new clients and over 30 new brands.
- XDS continued working with close to 20 clients.
- For the 4th year in a row, XDS has shown an over 40% increase in revenue YoY.
- Over 20 new websites designed, developed, and deployed.
- Over 500 social posts created and launched for clients.
- XDS grew to 33 employees across 12 states in 3 time zones.
We grew and evolved our XDS cares initiative by partnering with Selflessly, a donation and volunteering platform, to allow employees to volunteer and donate from wherever they are, while also instituting a new volunteering policy. Employees are now provided with two days of PTO for volunteer work.
Once again, we were voted a Great Place To Work. Whether it's the work-from-home office perks, the no nights or weekends work policy, our Slack debates about the best pizza toppings, or the team atmosphere; remote and all, the culture and work-life balance experienced by our XDSers has earned us bragging rights as a Great Place to Work®-Certified company for the second year in a row.
OUR CLIENTS
XDS has maintained several core clients over the years, and those relationships continue to grow.
Shockwave Medical
We continued supporting Shockwave Medical across their digital efforts, from their evolving website to email and offline material.
Intersect ENT
Intersect ENT, Inc, a long-tenured client who joined the Medtronic family, continued to evolve their product line and offering as we supported them on several websites and campaign launches.
Arcus Bio
Our relationship with Arcus Bio expanded greatly, as we worked to launch their brand-new intranet and are wrapping up efforts on the new arcusbio.com website, set to launch in Q1 of 2023. All the while, we expanded our digital support for the company into social media, careers recruiting and clinical trials.
Aerin Medical
Similarly, with Aerin Medical, our efforts continued to expand across the company’s product sites, while driving paid media traffic via Google and Facebook.
NEW CLIENTS
Here is a closer look at the new clients we've had the privilege of working with this past year.
Bridge Bio
Our efforts for Bridge Bio continued to expand across a variety of digital fronts throughout the year, setting up an exciting and busy 2023. Bridge Bio is a biotech designing transformative medicine for patients with genetic diseases and cancers.
Cala Health
XDS is partnering with Cala Health on their Cala Trio™ therapy, which is an FDA-cleared, wrist-worn medical device that provides relief for hand tremors.
Tenon Medical
We recently kicked off a website redesign for Tenon Medical. Tenon Medical is delivering the latest innovation in sacroiliac joint surgical solutions for patients with chronic sacroiliac joint pain via the Catamaran™ SIJ Fusion System.
Editas Medicine
XDS has hit the ground running with another Intranet build, this time for a new client, Editas Medicine. Editas Medicine is a leading genome editing company that aims to discover, develop, manufacture, and commercialize transformative, durable, and precise genomic medicines for a broad class of diseases.
Babson Diagnostics
Team XDS recently kicked off a redesign for Babson Diagnostics. Babson Diagnostics is envisioning an improved customer experience in diagnostic blood testing without sacrificing accuracy or cost. By creating a model that brings this service to the retail pharmacy counter, Babson hopes to alleviate challenges and eliminate unnecessary barriers in blood testing.
Cytokinetics
We’re excited to be partnering with Cytokinetics on their new website and intranet. Cytokinetics is working toward developing potential medicines to improve the health span of people with devastating cardiovascular and neuromuscular diseases of impaired muscle function.
The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
We are flying sky high about teaming up with the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and helping supercharge their digital presence. The Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by advancing innovative research and improving the quality of life for individuals and families impacted by paralysis.
LAUNCHES
The Experience Design Studio has been hard at work launching successful websites and intranets for our clients in 2022.
Kinevant Sciences
We proudly launched sarcoidosistrial.com, the first clinical trials website for Kinevant Sciences’ RESOLVE-Lung Study that is evaluating namilumab for the treatment of chronic pulmonary sarcoidosis. It’s always exciting when our clients strive to fight rare diseases.
SINUVA
Experience the rebranded, user-friendly design of the new SINUVA website! Along with launching the site, XDS implemented a geotargeted lead gen campaign.
Freenome
The new Freenome website is up and running. Freenome is connecting people with next-generation blood tests for early cancer detection, powered by their multiomics platform. This new website is geared toward bringing clinical trials to life.
ORIGO
XDS is more than just a healthcare shop. Early in 2022, we began our partnership with ORIGO, a company focused in the education space, to create a new and improved website. The new site provides an enhanced user experience and provides a clear vision of what the company has to offer. ORIGO Education delivers Elementary Math Curriculums, Supplemental Resources, and Professional Learning that addresses the needs of learners from pre-K through elementary school. The website also picked up a MarCom Platinum Award!
CVRX
Team XDS partnered with CVRX on the development of their newest patient and healthcare provider websites. View the newly relaunched website at cvrx.com.
Arcus Biosciences
The Arcus Biosciences Intranet is full steam ahead, providing a more efficient communication hub for the company's employees. This is one of many Intranets XDS had created for clients in 2022.
AWARDS
MarCom Awards
Team XDS picked up several MarCom Awards this year. The MarCom Awards honors excellence in marketing and communication while recognizing the creativity, hard work, and generosity of industry professionals.
Origo Education
Platinum Award for Digital Media Website, Business to Consumer
The new ORIGO website designed by XDS provides an enhanced user experience and a clear vision of what the company has to offer.
Propel Sinus Stent
Gold Award for Digital Media Website, Medical
The new Propel website is geared toward providing an enhanced experience, allowing users to easily navigate the site and obtain the information and services they are interested in.
SINUVA
Platinum Award for Digital Media Website, Medical
XDS rebranded the SINUVA website with a new user-friendly design.
Freenome Clinical Trials
Honorable Mention for Digital Media Website, Medical
The new Freenome website created by XDS is geared toward bringing clinical trials to life.
HERMES CREATIVE AWARDS
Hermes Creative Awards honors the messengers and creators of the information revolution. Armed with their imaginations and computers, Hermes winners bring their ideas to life through traditional and digital platforms. Each year, competition judges evaluate the creative industry’s best publications, branding collateral, websites, videos, and advertising, marketing, and communication programs.
Intersect ENT, Inc.
Platinum Hermes Creative Award
XDS was recognized for our work on the interactive rebrand of mysinusitis.com.
Intersect ENT, Inc.
Platinum Hermes Creative Award, Overall Website
PROPEL website, sinusstent.com
PrognomiQ Inc.
Gold Hermes Creative Award
prognomiq.com
PROMOTIONS
A slew of XDSers continued to shine and take strides in their careers, earning much-deserved promotions heading into 2023:
- Chen Reichert, NY – Assoc. Director, Design
- Will Figueiredo, PA – Technical Lead
- Tim Perkins, PA – Technical Lead
- Hunter Wages, PA – QA Manager
- Luke Hoang, PA – Sr. Web Developer
- Mark Swinimer, MA – Sr. Web Developer
- Kaitlyn Howe, WI – Sr. Digital Producer
- Jess Acheampong, MD – Digital Producer
ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE DESIGN STUDIO
The Experience Design Studio is an award-winning digitally native customer experience agency founded in 2017 by two agency veterans, bringing their collective creative, user experience, marketing, technology, and healthcare expertise together. XDS is a full-service digital agency providing strategy to creation, consulting, design, engineering, marketing, and analytics, with the aim of providing seamless customer, patient, and HCP experiences across all digital touchpoints, with common sense sprinkled in.